Hello, everyone. I’m Yuki.

Cold winter seems finally disappearing and warmer winds come in Kyoto.
Beautiful cherry blossom season has just arrived.
Kyoto held the last activity of fiscal year last month.
Handmade Pangaea Playing cards were delivered to participated youths and facilitators.
Please check out photos of last month’s activity.
We are happy to hear that 13 facilitators and 3 technical staffs joined as new Pangaeans in Korea.
We are very excited and welcome them.

Please read on to find out more.

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INDEX
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+Pangaea Ring -Message from Linh-
+Activity Report in Kyoto University
+ Other Information

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Pangaea Ring -Message from Linh-
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Pangaea Ring: Mr. Vu Duy Linh - Reflections of a technical coordinator of the YMC Viet Project in Vietnam.

Hello everyone,
My name is Linh, an information technology official from Center for Statistics and Informatics (CIS) – Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
Today, I am really happy to write my feeling about NPO Pangaea. At the beginning, I actually had no idea and any information about Pangaea even though I knew about Japan a lot until I met Yumi and Toshi 3 years ago in 2010, following the suggestion of my colleague, Ms. Hoa who also worked with us after that in Pangaea’s Project in Viet Nam so called “YMC Viet.” We had a meeting at that time to hear Yumi and Toshi introduce Pangaea, its mission and activities in Vietnam. I was really impressed and amazed on the working that Pangaea brings to children in particular and the world in general. Since then, I had studied much more about Pangaea’s activities and its history through the web page. I gradually understood that Pangaea is an organization that is playing the role of the connectivity among people each other no thanks to the barrier in the language and distance.
Now, I am back to my work when I participated in YMC Viet Project as a local technical coordinator. The concept of YMC Viet, or Youth Mediated Communication and Viet, is that it is deploying at Thien My commune, Tra On District, in the southern province of Vinh Long, Viet Nam. It is basically an attempt to communicate with illiterate farmers through their literate children who go to school. But one of its innovations is the application of Language Grid, which enables the communication between Japanese agricultural specialists and Vietnamese farmers transcending the language barriers with its multi-lingual environment. Another point is the use of children in place of sensors to collect such meteorological data as temperature and humidity and to observe and record the status of rice growth including its height and the color of leaves over time, and use them as source information to give appropriate agricultural advice. Especially, thanks to Pangaea’s technologies, children can use PCs and mobile phone successfully and smoothly to connect with their adult population despite current ICT (Information and Communication Technology) constraints and language differences between Japanese and Vietnamese.

For me, a local Tech Coordinator responsible for generally all project’s coordination relevant to technical issues, directly take part in dealing with big troubles that occur during the process of project, take over all recommendations and petitions and inquiries from local tech staff, agriculture specialists, and bridgers of Viet Nam site in using equipment, YMC web system, and the related others, inform to YMC Viet management board if they are beyond one’s reach.
Actually, this activity attracted me so much they brought me much more helpful and meaningful things than I had imaged. Through it I learned by much experience from the way which Pangaea prepares for and run its project abroad in a very professional manner and after that it also helped me a lot my daily work in my office. In line with the project and after finishing my each task within the project time I had a big opportunity to contact with Yumi and Toshi in daily life they are very, very close and social people. I am just able to talk a real story to partly describe themselves is, in 2010 on our way of a paid business trip to the northern province of Bac Giang in order to look for a place to deploy the YMC Viet project when we visited a family where there is a child’s father who is a chief of an office of the department of agriculture and in line with a liaison for us. At the first time when this child met Yumi and Toshi, he looked really strange and silent and this is also his nature and in very natural way and by Yumi and Toshi’s close instinct and as their work, Yumi and Toshi made friends with him easily through many communicative ways and step by step his nature changed a lot, from a quiet and silent child, he became an active and open one before the astonishment of his parents and us. Although the YMC Viet project has not been deployed there afterward, his family always remind Yumi and Toshi of the things which brought to their child and family whenever they met Mrs. Hoa and me in Hanoi. And for me, I feel luckier because I frequently keep contact with them, sometime they have visit Hanoi and at least via internet. Now and in the future I am always up-to-date mission and activities of Pangaea and I am very ready to become a faithful volunteer in Viet Nam whenever Pangaea needs. Everything belongs to Pangaea could be my hobby. I know that this is the 10th anniversary year for the NPO Pangaea. I wish Pangaea family all the best wishes to continue contributing and bringing Pangaea to fly faster and higher in the future. Personally, I am very much looking forward to contributing to Pangaea in the future.

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Activity Report in Kyoto University
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This month, we distributed Pangaea Playing Cards to children.
They were very excited because they were their original cards containing self-made design.
As soon as they got cards, they opened the package and looked.
Please take a look at pictures that take the scene and other Village’s ones

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.463391740398663.1073741825.130325790371928&type=1

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=463671990370638&set=a.141268505944323.33092.130325790371928&type=1

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=463455223725648&set=a.141268505944323.33092.130325790371928&type=1

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Other Information
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Tokyo Activity will move to new location in May.
It will be held at Honest Co., Ltd. located at Hongo-3chome, Tokyo.
If you are interesting in joining our Activity, please let us know early from below URL.

info@pangaean.org

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